WEEDING TIME

NZ Truth, Issue 1184, 9 August 1928, Page 14

WEEDING TIME

Combing The Ghances For Chatham Gup

(From "N.Z. Truth's" Palmerston North Hep.) Petone left no doubt of their superiority m the Soccer code when they played and defeated Hastings, &—l, m the Chatham Cup elimina-' tion match at Palmerston North on Saturday. . ; THE Hastings team, was by\ no means disgraced, however, and had the gale -force wind not been so persistent, a better and. perhaps more spectacular game would have ensued; ' I D. Penman found the goal for Hastings a quarter of an hour after the start, this being the only point scored for his side, though the forward line were frequently seen m promising movements. Within five minutes, McKenzte, outside right for Petone, had evened matters. After this there was little of outstanding interest, althbugh the play was well contested; and clever. Both sides showed a complete reversal of form m the second spell. Petone, with King Boris behind them, pressing constantly, gave the' Hastings goalie a merry time,' while the. fullbacks had their kicking powers fully tested. ■ .; For fully seventy-five per cent, of the session, Hastings found the Petone forwards m dangerous territory, and it* was due to a combination of good- luck and good work that the score was not i higher. At some stages of the game, shots came m at the rate of one per minute, but bad direction nullified most of them, and the Petone' men found it a hard proposition "to get past Wilson m any case. The deciding points of th« game were gained for Petone by Lieslierwho got through twice. There was some disappointment on the stand at the form displayed by the Hastings men , m the first spell, when they had all conditions to their advantage, and it must be admitted that had they put the same "pep" into their play as they did later m the game, Petone would probably have been com^ pelled to concede another, it not two, points. ' Their team-work m the first spell was not of the best, and they missed rather than made opportunities; Though. D. Penman, centre-forward, got through once, it is probable that better scoring results would have accrued had he been given the ball more often. It was an interesting match, fast and always exhilarating, from the spectators' point of view, and perhaps, on the day's play, the score was a fair indication of the merits of the respective sides. : "